The Foley Lumberjacks, who claimed the final State Tournament berth from District 4B last year with a 12-6 win over Buckman, faced that same Billygoats team on Opening Day in 2026 in Foley. The starting pitchers for this one were Trey Emmerich for Foley and newly acquired Braxton Tautges for Buckman. The Goats signed Tautges this Spring after he started his career with St. Mathias.
Buckman threatened in the top of the 1st, getting walks from Matt Tautges and Matt Kummet and a single from Noah Boser to load the bases with 1 out, but Trey Emmerich then got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
After working a 1-2-3 first inning in his Buckman debut, Braxton Tautges gave up solid hits to Trey Emmerich and Alec Dietl in the 2nd, but then got a strikeout to strand both runners to send the game to the 3rd still scoreless.
Foley got another pair of hits in the 3rd from Drew Beier and Joe Ziwicki, but Tautges got a pair of pop ups to the left side of the infield to end the 3rd.
Ben Thoma led off the top of the 4th with an infield single against new Foley pitcher Michael Moulzolf but the Billygoats were unable to do anything with it.
In the bottom of the 4th, Foley broke up the scoreless tie, scoring 3 times. It started with a walk to Alex Foss and a single by Sam Keeler. Then Alex Dietl put down a bunt to sacrifice runners to 2nd and 3rd, but the bunt was mishandled for an error, allowing Dietl to reach safely as well and Foley had the bases loaded with no outs. After a Tautges strikeout, Hunter Hamers put down a bunt to squeeze home the games 1st run as Alex Foss scored to make it 1-0. Buckman then intentionally walked Drew Beier to reload the bases with 2 outs. Braxton Tautges then hit both Joe Ziwicki and Chuck Hackett with pitches to force in another 2 runs. Buckman then brought in Matt Tautges to pitch and get got Trey Emmerich to bounce back to the mound to end the inning with Foley up 3-0.
In the top of the5th, Buckman got back-toback 2-out singles from Matt Tautges and Lane Girtz, but Michael Moulzolf got Noah Boser to fly out to deep left to end the inning.
However, an inning later, Buckman made it 3-2 when Matt Kummet led off with a walk and was balked to 2nd. Ben Thoma then doubled to right-center to score Kummet and make it 3-1. After a Moulzolf strikeout, Andrew Rueckert lined an rbi single to right to bring home Thoma and make it 3-2. Buckman had the tying run at 2nd with 1 out but Moulzolf got the next 2 hitters to pop up tp 3rd baseman Chuck Hackett to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Matt Tautges struck out the side in the 5th and then gave up a lead-off walk in the 6th, but then picked that runner off and then finished the inning with a strikeout and a ground out to 1st baseman Ben Thoma.
In the top of the7th, Buckman took their first lead when Matt Tautges led off with a single down the left field line, then was wild pitched to 2nd. Lane Girtz was then hit by a pitch and Noah Boser ripped an rbi single to right to bring home Tautges and tie the game at 3-3. Foley then brought in Drew Beier to relieve Michael Moulzolf on the mound. But a pair of wild pitches allowed Lane Girtz to score and Buckman had taken a 4-3 lead at the 7th inning stretch.
That lead didn’t hold up however, as Buckman brought in Peter Herman, signed off the Pierz Lakers roster during the offseason, to pitch in the bottom of the 7th and Joe Ziwicki greeted him with a game-tying lead-off Homer to left and it was 4-4. Trey Emmerich added a 1-out single and Alex Foss walked to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Sam Keeler then hit waht looked like a potential inning-ending double play ball up the middle, but the flip to 2nd for the force out was to high for an error as Trey Emmerich came home with the go-ahed run to make it 5-4 after 7 innings.
In the top of the 8th, Drew Beier retired Buckman in order and in the bottom of the 8th, Foley managed a walk to Hunter Hamers and a Drew Beier single but Ben Thoma came on in relief to get out of trouble.
In their final at-bat, Buckman again was set down in order by Drew Beier on a pair of ground balls and a pop up to shortstop as the Lumberjacks opened the year with the 5-4 victory.
Buckman 4 9 2 – 4
Foley 5 8 0 – 5
WP: Drew Beier 3.0 IP 0 runs 0 hits 3k 1bb
Trey Emmerich 3.0 IP 0 runs 2 hits 6k 2bb
Michael Moulzolf 3.0 IP 4 runs 7 hits 1k 1bb 1hp
LP: Peter Herman 1.0 IP 2 runs 3 hits 1k 2bb
Braxton Tautges 3.2 IP 3 runs 5 hits 4k 2bb 2hp
Matt Tautges 2.1 IP 0 runs 0 hits 4k 1bb
Ben Thoma 1.0 IP 0 runs 0 hits 0k 0bb
Foley:
Drew Beier 2-4 bb
Joe Ziwicki 2-4 Hr, hp, 2 rbi, run
Chuck Hackett 0-4 hp, rbi
Trey Emmerich 2-4 run
Alex Foss 0-2 2bb, run
Sam Keeler 1-4 run
Alec Dietl 1-3 sac, run
– Michael Moulzolf
Wyatt Ziwicki 0-3 bb
Hunter Hamers 0-2 sac, bb
Buckman:
Matt Tautges 2-4 bb, run
Lane Girtz 1-4 hp, run
Noah Boser 2-5 rbi
Matt Kummet 0-3 2bb, run
Ben Thoma 2-4 2B, rbi, run
Jack Suska 0-3 bb
Andrew Rueckert 2-4 rbi
Peter Herman 0-4
Travis Kahl 0-4
– Braxton Tautges
